False Step/ Victoria Helen Stone/ 268 pgs

I (and a number of other people) loved the protagonist in Stone's last novel, Jane Doe. Alas, the main character in this one is no Jane Doe. We spend the entire book in Veronica's head and I didn't find that very enjoyable. Veronica got pregnant at a young age and married Johnny, the father. They've struggled financially, mostly because Johnny is an overgrown adolescent, albeit one who adores his daughter. Johnny becomes a local hero when he finds a missing 3 year old boy while hiking. Except that it turns out the boy wasn't missing per se, but had been kidnapped and his family paid the ransom, without informing the police, a couple of days before he's found. Johnny is immediately under suspicion. Veronica suspects him too--of having another affair. She's still mad at him about the first one and yet, she's got her own secret affair going on. Veronica is not happy with her life or anyone in it but she is not a strong enough character to make the decisions she needs to make. It was clear to me from the beginning who was behind the kidnapping, but Veronica remains selfish and clueless until the very end. If you have a choice, I recommend reading Jane Doe over this one.

The Widow/Carla Neggers/447 pages

     The Widow is a mystery/suspense novel set on the chilly cost of Maine.  Abigail Browning is a homicide detective who's husband (an FBI agent) was killed just four days after they were married.  Now, seven years later, Abigail is getting anonymous phone calls from someone who claims to know something and Abigail is determined to finally solve the case.  There were a host of characters in this story--Owen, from Search & Rescue, Doyle and Lou are local law enforcement, Linc the spoiled twenty-something who is wasting his life, Mattie the town drunk and blackmailer plus Jason, Ellis. Sean, Ian, Grace and more--which makes for a huge pool of suspects for this who done it.  All in all, this was a really good novel.  I got a little frustrated with the long periods were there was action but the author was not giving the reader anything to help figure out the mystery and how Abigail and her husband's murder fit into it.

Fine Her/Lisa Gardner/402 pages

      Find Her is the 8th book in a series about Boston detective DD Warren.  This story finds DD recovering from injuries sustained in her previous case that seriously injured her shoulder making it difficult to hold a gun properly so she is on restricted duty--but still in the thick of the investigation when the call comes in that Flora Dane (a survivor of a 15 month kidnapping from five years earlier) is involved in the death of a bar tender who had the misfortune to attempt to kidnap Flora.  It turns out that Flora has armed herself with training and self-defense moves and has put herself in danger on a regular basis maybe hoping to be able to get back at the low life who commit these crimes.  Then, just when you least expect it, Flora is again snatched in a horrible turn of events that is very unsettling.

     The chapters are staggered in a three way switch between the story of Flora and her current captor, Flora and her original captor and DD working through her own problems but determined to find and solve Flora's mystery.

     Even though the storyline borders on the unbelievable, this is a solid mystery/suspense novel with a different twist.  Characters are realistic and believable.  Good read.